PATNA: Altogether 18 persons including one from Nepal were arrested and six minor girls including those hailing from Assam, West Bengal and Jharkhand were rescued from brothels at Boha tola in Sitamarhi town after a raid on late Thursday night.
The rescued minor girl, aged hardly between 14years to 17 years, had been trafficked and were being used in the flesh trade which was run by a group of people in the area in an organised manner.
Sitamarhi SP Harkishore Rai said that a Delhi based NGO Aditi had given a tip-off to the police after which a raid was conducted in leadership of DSP (headquarter) Raj Narayan Singh at several houses in the locality which were being used as brothels.
“Out of the 18 arrested, five were customers. Rest are those who were running the brothels. The rescued minor girls belong to Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Patna and one from Kishanganj,” he said.
Rai said that the girls have been shifted to shelter homes and processes are on to verify their address and establish contact with their family members.
Meanwhile DSP Singh said that the 18 arrested persons include Hina Khatoon, Nafisa Khatoon, two women named Mina Khatoon, Payal Khatoon, Zubaida Khatoon, Salma Khatoon, Mohammad Yusuf, Laddu Kumar, Sahnaz Khalifa, Pinki Khatoon, Mohammad Dilip, Dilip Rai, Mohammad Mustaq, Aryan Yadav (Rohtak, Nepal), Umesh Rai, Kiran Khatoon and Mohammad Talim.
He said some of the NGO authorities had reached from Delhi and their identities have been kept confidential due to security reasons.
“One Manzoor Khalifa is the kingpin of the entire racket. He is evading arrest but his wife Nafisa has been arrested. Raids were carried out in the locality in 2019 and 2020 too for running brothels,” he said. DSP said further investigations were going on in connection with the case.
